THE N W YORKER cinated them, supplied them with ra- tions, settled them in campsites, and furnished them with blankets and tents. It is sdid that as word of this hospitality got about, it encouraged more refugees to flee, compounding the tragedy. No doubt the impulse to help was humanitarian, but few believe that it had no other source; the urge to de- stroy Pakistan-perhaps even to unite India as it was before partition-must, it IS thought, have played some part in Indian political calculations. According to this argument, the Hindus in Paki- stan had been living on borrowed time, and, in a sense, the Indian gov- ernment had alwavs expected to be saddled with them sooner or later. Now the presence of the refugees, in destitution, gave India the opportunity to expose and dramatize to the world the theocratic nature of Pakistan- w hose creation had been forced upon India, and whose existence the Indians had never accepted-and to place the blame for their exodus on the Pakistani military junta. (The Pakistanis, who claim that the Indians have inflated the figures on refugees, partly by misstate- men t and partly by adding to the camps' population the riffraff of the Indian streets, put the number of refu- gees at two and a half million, but all world relief organizations accept the Indian figures as accurate.) Whatever India's motives, it cer- tainly seems that concern for the wel- fare of the refugees, which should have been the primary consideration, has not had much to do with the policies adopt- ed by the UnIted States, the Soviet Union, or China-the big powers caught up in the situation. The Ameri- can government, possibly taking its cue from the old State Department dictum that in the underdeveloped world the only reliable allies are military govern- ments, not only has never puhlicly cen- sured General Yahya's military gov- ernmen t but had con tin ued to supply arms to it until Mrs. Gandhi's state visit to the United States last month. The monetary value of this matériel was relatively insignificant, but, consist- ing, as it did, of spare parts for im- ported equipment, it must have been of considerable military value to Pakistan, and, being sent, as it was, in full knowledge of the effects of General Yahya's polIcy, it had an alienating ef- fect on the Indians which cannot be underestimated. The State Depart- ment's view-even if it were plausi- ble-that it is best to be on the right side of General Yahya so as to be bet- ter able to infl uence his policy has been tnaintained only at the expense of mor- 175 :.. .. _1 TI .. "<" h ): v j ñjjj"gfu "'....... ... "" > 3>"< . ,...,:0. "" ", v." . ""it va): ",-,' . .. : '" " ',: ^. ",-:i''''' . .. ^" ",""" 'm ^.Æ '" W. .. ^' "" v '. .. ^' 'S: ^"'V .. :: "" "" : - > .. . .. ..,'" . -:-.' . :-. :--. "" "" "" I I J f . . , , ;'.. " ,,", M. F. K. Fisher recalls her childhood AMONG FRIENDS "" "'" ..... ::,' * . "" ... .;; ':/" '" ^ , , .I "" "'" '" "" '" ø ^ . , :0: > "'", << , , , V^ I With wit and with feeling she takes us into her life as an "outsider" in Whittier, California in the 1910's - and into her loving and richly idiosyncratic family that furnished the sense of belonging denied by the town's austere, exclusive Quaker majority. > " "" , "" "'..,. .-.; << : .q; "" ':/" .. . '^ : :: * ..,. ..,. ... .'" , , t, ':: " ,, "q ,. " . "Ii ' ''')J '''! "\':>'" ,:' ): "< :,.oj ..', :>t í ' , .. t ,"< , , .... :: . .' " : :\ $6.95 · Some of the chapters first appeared in The New Yorker ALFRED. A. KNOPF ... , "" ,^ , ':5- : * '\. ;v > '"=: . ,,' t to> v> . , ...::.-::,..... :;:-":":---::::-:--:: . ..-: NATIONAL BEST SELLER , þ -- - '\ I $ ..\ .". t _. , . I Ì -' þ'-. to> by E.M. FORSTER (; \ "A major new Forster novel" 1f;\\(1 . r j -CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, N.Y. Ti A J \, f"l \ II I o : :::::::: : ;5 ifili.i : . .i ;:- Ö.3................. /{ < t i ,1< <W THE POTTER AND HIS CHILDREN An illustrated fable for all ages by Robert Caples Order through your favorite bookseller $6.50 Carlton Press 84 Fifth Avenue N.Y.. HAZEL PERPER shows how to grow orange, lemon, lime and other citrus trees indoors. $3.00. DODD, MEAD